"From Machon Puah"

Unusual Remedies and Halachic Prohibitions

Last week we mentioned the Mishna’s stance on using remedies which are unconventional. There are several sources that discuss this very subject.
In the past it was thought that someone who was bitten by a rabid dog should be fed the dog’s liver and that this was the antidote to the bite and would protect against the subsequent illness. However, the Mishna (Yoma 8:4) states that one who was bit by a rabid dog should not be fed the liver of that dog.
Rashi explains the reason for this, “even though the doctors do heal in this way, it is not a complete remedy that would be sufficient to permit consuming a non-kosher animal.” While there were Sages in the Mishna who permitted such a practice the normative halacha is that we cannot permit breaking the halacha unless it involves a complete remedy.
The Rambam on the Mishna explains that the consuming of the dog’s liver “helped on an esoteric level and the Sages were of the opinion that we can only break the commandments when dealing with medication that works in a more logical manner, remedies that heal and are true and tested, but it is forbidden to heal with remedies that are esoteric as they are far from being proven.”
As already stated last week, only a drug that can be proven can be termed medicine. While we are obliged to take medicine and even permitted or, in certain cases, obliged to take such medicine even if it involves compromising halacha such as kashrut, this can only be applied to medicine that can be proven to heal this ailment.
In another source (Moreh Nevuchim 3:37), the Rambam defines the ways of the Emori as being close to witchcraft, this is “anything that they claim helps but cannot be proven logically and empirically” and this is included in the prohibition of following gentile practice. In the same source the Rambam states that something that has been observed to heal may not be defined as the ways of the Emori even though we cannot exactly explain the way it works.
From these sources it would appear that one can consume non-kosher medicine or medicine that contains non-kosher ingredients only if it has a logical explanation or has been proved to help.
In the time of the Mishna a popular type of “medical” treatment was the use of amulets to ward of illness. Are amulets permitted? Are there different types of amulets?      More on this next week

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